Tony Blair and David Beckham must be quaking already – satirical TV show Spitting Image has announced its return.

The cutting edge comedy and its host of puppets should be back on the screen by 2005 with a cast of new characters expected to include the Prime Minister, President Bush and, of course, Posh and Becks.

Blair will be hoping for kinder treatment than his predecessor John Major who was ridiculed as the Grey Man during the last series in 1996.

Other unforgettable puppets from the ITV show include the Queen, Prince Phillip, and even Her Majesty’s pet corgis who put in a regular appearance.

Producer John Lloyd said: “By the time the show finished there was nothing left to say about the people in the public eye. Now there’s a whole new cast of characters.”

Thanks again to flamingkitties. A few things: I haven’t seen this news anywhere else, so treat it with the caution you would usually give a single source news story. If it is true though, it is great news. For the past few years I’ve been saying that Spitting Image should return – it has endless possibilites, and having had a rest, should be ready to beat 2DTV’s socks off (assuming they put together a decent team. Preferably one that includes precisely nobody from Dead “cunting” Ringers.) It’s excellent news that John Lloyd is involved; he was a writer/Producer of the original series, and one of the original team that got the show (and indeed the company) up and running.

For those of you wondering what the Red Dwarf connection is here, Rob and Doug used to be Script Editors in the early series – and Chris Barrie continued to do a lot of the main male voices until 1991, when Red Dwarf V shooting commitments intervened. If you want the slightly more obscure connection, it was mooted at one point early in Dwarf‘s development process that it would be jointly produced by John Lloyd and Paul Jackson (eventually the latter did it alone.) Now, what a co-production that would have been.

I’d say it’s very unlikely that Rob or Doug will have anything to do with the new series (although I can hold a pipedream that Rob Grant will become main writer, can’t I?) – but it’s (speculatively) possible that Chris Barrie might return to the series. Mind you, he probably earns more sitting on his bum staring at Angelia Jolie’s tits for a day than for a whole series of Spitting Image, but never mind.

Let’s hope the new series comes off, anyway. What with this, and QI, John Lloyd’s return to television is proving rather interesting…

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